Some Bankruptcy Questions

John28337398 wrote: »

Hi Laura thanks very much for taking the time to reply. That’s been most helpful. I have some further questions I hope you can help with?

If the OR doesn’t let me keep the leased car and I suppose they won’t. What happens with the charges that get incurred due to ending the agreement does this all form part of the BR. Also the car needs serviced and has some small damage that I was going to repair myself, but if it gets handed back does the cost of service and damage just form part of the BR? Any debt that accrued prior to the bankruptcy would be included. You should speak to the lease company first and if they say they will not permit the agreement to continue after you go bankrupt you should return the car. Follow the process to do this as outlined in the agreement and any shortfall should be included in the bankruptcy.

My company has a share scheme where you pay £50 pre tax and they match this amount and you buy £100 of the company shares. You need to keep them for 5 years to sell them tax free. How long have you had them now? Just now there is around £9000 in it but I can’t sell the shares without losing any bough with the companies £50. So I f I was to sell everything I’d lose have of it and then pay tax and national insurance on the remaining shares. It only costs around £33 per month after tax to participate in the scheme. I’m assuming I’ve no chance of keeping this and would need to sell them all. If it is an asset that can be realised, they will likely be sold as part of the bankruptcy. What’s the chances of still being allowed to keep paying the £50 after BR? Unfortunately, this is very unlikely.

Also if I know I’m going to lose my lease car I could sell them myself just now and buy a car with the money I will need a car so I don’t think this is unreasonable but how would the OR view it. If the car is on lease you are only renting it, so you must not sell it. If there is an option to buy the car at the end that is hire purchase. It may vary some of the advice given but the car is still not yours until the final payment is made. You cannot sell it, and use the money to buy something else, especially if you are going to go bankrupt. I’ve not actually filled out any forms for BR yet only been advised by step change that I should.

Can I confirm about bank accounts I have been advised by step change to open a basic one now before declaring BR. I have done this last night (Nationwide) though they say you should wait until after you are bankrupt to open the account. If I move all essential DD to this account does it still get frozen? Yes it would likely be frozen, but you can ask the OR to authorise essential payments, and the OR may not freeze it for particularly long if it is a basic account.

What if my salary gets paid in and the account gets frozen is the salary confiscated? Again, you can ask for money to be released/ authorised for essentials. How long normally would the OR keep a basic account frozen if it was used to pay essential bills council tax etc? As above.

Does the OR ask to see statements from betting accounts, paypal, prepaid cards such as revoulut, spread betting accounts? They would likely ask to see things like this.

How likely is the OR to accept my budget if its been reviewed and accepted by step change. Do they normally agree with step change or are they likely to challenge it?
The OR will assess the budget in their own right. Step Change are a free debt charity and should’ve helped you work out a realistic and sustainable budget, but unfortunately, we can’t say if the OR will accept these figures or challenge them